Jennifer Song

Yo, so let me tell you about Jennifer Song. This girl is the real deal, straight-up genius in the optics and tech world. She’s the co-founder and CEO of Photonium, a startup that’s basically automating optical system design with AI – yeah, AI for optics, no joke. They’re backed by Y Combinator, X25 batch, which is a huge stamp of approval.

But here’s the wild part – she’s not just some random entrepreneur. Jennifer studied physics, math, and computer science at Harvard. That’s a triple threat right there. She’s been deep in the lab building quantum optics experiments at Harvard, Stanford, and even at QuEra – that’s a Google-backed quantum computing startup. So, she’s not just talking theory, she’s been hands-on, actually making shit work in the real world.

Her motivation? Totally relatable. She saw how fucked up the engineering workflows in optics are – super inefficient and clunky. Instead of just complaining, she jumped into the game and co-founded Photonium in 2025 with her buddy Adam Mhatre. They wanted to shake things up and make designing optical systems faster, smarter, and way more modern. Think about it – sectors like quantum tech, biomedical imaging, LiDAR, and semiconductor manufacturing all need tight optical systems. Jennifer’s goal? To simplify all that with AI, making it accessible and fast.

Photonium’s based out in Palo Alto – right in the heart of Silicon Valley, where the magic happens – and they crushed it to get into YC. That’s a huge proof to how new their idea is and how much possible they see in her leadership.

Bottom line: Jennifer’s not just some tech startup founder. She’s a researcher turned entrepreneur who saw a real problem, knew she could solve it with her deep technical skills, and went all-in. Her process shows she’s motivated by a genuine desire to fix inefficiencies and push the boundaries of science using AI. She’s the kind of person who doesn’t just talk about the future – she builds it. And honestly, she’s just getting started.